A plurality of panels for wall, ceiling, and/or floor coatings are known from the prior art. For example, so-called laminate panels are widely spread as floor coating in the inner area. Laminate panels are relatively cheap and can be well processed. Commonly, they are based on a carrier plate made of MDF or HDF material, on which a decor paper, impregnated with melamine resin, is applied to its upper side. By grouting under influence of heat and pressure, the resins cure, such that a highly abrasion-resistant surface is formed. To increase abrasion resistance, the surface is often provided with abrasion resistant particles, in particular corundum, prior to grouting.
As an alternative to laminate panels, for some time past, high-quality panels based on PVC are known and are distributed as LVT (luxury vinyl tiles). For example, a floor panel in the form of multi-layered, rectangular laminate with a carrier plate consisting of soft polyvinylchloride (PVC) is known from DE 10 2006 058 655 A1. Onto the soft PVC layer, or plate respectively, a decor paper web is glued on, such that the visible surface of the PVC is applied with a decor. As an alternative to such decor paper webs, applied to a PVC carrier plate, also the usage of plastic foils is known, which are also, for example, imprinted with a decorative decor.
From DE 10 2006 029 963 A1, a floor coating made of polyvinylchloride is known, which is coated with a durable lacquer layer, to improve durability of the PVC floor coating. The lacquer layer is based on an acrylate resin and is cured by means of radiation. The core of this document relies in adding of electrical conductive substances to the resin, for proving the finished floor coating with antistatic and/or electrical conductive properties.
More recently, LVT panels prevailed on the market that have a harder PVC plate with a thickness of 4-6 mm as a ground and on which a soft PVC layer is applied, comprising the features as described above. Specific profiles are milled into the harder plate as coupling means. In such a way, the single panels can easily be laid to form a plane area.
In a further development of the above described panels, so-called direct imprinted panels have been developed. Commonly, for these direct imprinted panels no more papers of foils are used, in particular no decor paper. The decor layer is rather directly imprinted onto the surface of the carrier plate, to which commonly a suitable pretreatment is applied, by utilizing dispersion colors by means of an intaglio printing process. In particular, before printing, a primer is applied by means of roller application. After drying of the decor layer, various resin layers are applied and cured. The resin layers thereby serve as a protective layer as well as abrasion resistant surface. To further improve abrasion resistance, often abrasion resistant particles, like corundum, are provided, too.
From WO 2007/042258, for example, a method for direct coating of wood materials is known, in which a thick protective layer made of plastic material is applied liquidly onto the surface of a plate within one coating step. The used plastic material is a liquid, polymerizable acrylate system that is cured by polymerization.
The mentioned prior art panels each have several pros and cons, depending from their structure, from the used manufacturing process, and from the used materials. For example, laminate panels can easily be laid, provide the opportunity to realize high-quality decors, and, additionally, are very durable. However, typically, the acoustic properties of laminate panels are disadvantageous, which produce annoying running noise when used as a floor coating. Responsible for that is the very hard melamine layer on the laminate surface. In addition, this melamine layer is felt as cold and unpleasant. Coatings based on PVC have excellent acoustic properties and, additionally, have a pleasant haptic and feel relatively soft and warm, which is desirable in many cases, e.g. when used as a floor coating in a bathroom. However, for producing optical high-quality surfaces, such PVC floorings have to be processed in a relative costly manner, and are therefore significantly more expensive compared to common laminate panels, at least when they should provide comparable quality. A disadvantage of PVC panels is that deep scratches can easily arise on the soft surface when intensively used, which disturb the optical image. Furthermore, it is disadvantageous that PVC floorings are not harmless from the ecological point of view. They comprise harmful plasticizers and chlorine is known as very dangerous in case of fire (e.g. chlorine dioxin development).
Direct imprinted panels remove some of the disadvantages of laminate panels and, e.g., need no decor paper soaked with melamine resin, whereby the manufacturing may be simplified. However, compared to laminate panels, they have similar disadvantages with regard to acoustic properties and haptic.
In light of these known panels, or respectively coatings, the objective of the present invention is to provide a panel, particularly a wall panel, a ceiling panel, or a floor panel, comprising as much as possible of the different advantages of the known panels, but at the same time, however, minimizing the existing disadvantages of the various panels. In addition, the further objective is to manufacture such a panel in a cheap and relatively simple manner. A further objective is providing such panels that have a good durability and which allow to realize high-quality decorative patterns.
This and other objectives, which will be mentioned in the present description or that will become apparent for the skilled person, are achieved by a panel according to claim 1 and with a respective manufacturing method of such a panel according to claim 24.